Great News

June 28, 2010

Senate Bill 1051 becomes law!!

All of us have been closely following the progress of Senate Bill 1051 during the last weeks. There were tense times as the legislative session was nearing its end but the bill was approved just under the wire, and is now law. Today, Governor Sanford has filed the unsigned bill with the Secretary of State where it now has the full faith and backing of the state of South Carolina.

This bill was critical to all Fripp owners for several reasons not the least of which was the potential significant drop of property values island wide, and other unintended consequences such as difficulty for buyers to obtain home loans. When the Office of Coastal Resource Management (OCRM) changed our setback lines last November and refused to address our concerns in a hearing, our only recourse to prevent the decision from becoming permanent was to delay the action by appealing to the Administrative Law Court. Your Board voted unanimously to appeal and start the process of getting the OCRM decision reversed on Fripp allowing time for our legislative representatives to start the process of the exemption bill.

What this bill means for Fripp going forward is that Fripp Island will be allowed to maintain its rock revetments. It also means that the baseline will be fixed at the top of the revetment and the setback lines will be permanently fixed at 20-feet landward of the revetment. OCRM will not come to Fripp every 10 years as they do elsewhere along the coast to re-examine the erosion rates, Fripp will be exempt from that section of the Beachfront Management Act. As long as the rock revetments are maintained, and it will remain each owner’s responsibility to maintain them, Fripp’s beachfront lots will continue to have the same jurisdictional lines within which to build that they have had for the past thirty years. The threat to all Fripp owners from OCRM’s landward movement of setback lines by use of unreliable data is no longer an issue.

We have many people to thank for making S. 1051 a reality. First and foremost is our General Manager, Kate Hines. She has worked tirelessly on this effort. The Board deserves credit for taking the initiative to move quickly when short timelines were imposed by OCRM. Mary Shahid of McNair Law Firm worked with Kate and the Board and also helped Senator Tom Davis who deserves our deepest gratitude for giving us not only his time but for having the forethought to draft this bill. Representative Shannon Erickson lent 100% of her support for the bill in the House of Representatives. Last but not least our members stepped to the table, called their Senators and Representatives, not just once but many times as this bill went from one legislative body to another and into Conference.

Congratulations Fripp Island it’s a great day for all of us!

Micki McCormick

FIPOA President

Sales Trending Upward in 2010

Last week for the first time in quite a while, I didn’t cringe when I looked at our monthly numbers. In fact when I finished studying them I was down-right happy. I am by no means telling you that this challenging market is behind us but I am telling you that we are starting to crawl out of the darkness.

Our “closed sales” and our “pending home sales” are more than twice what they were year to date in ’09, additionally, our walk in traffic, phone ins and web site hits are also twice what they were YTD. Island Realty is still the leader east of Cowan Creek with both listing volume and closed sales and we are the dominant force on Fripp Island (43% market share), Harbor Island (30% market share) and Coosaw Point (58% market share).

Last year we did 70% of our business in the 2^nd half of 2009 and I was hopeful that the trend would continue and it has. The market continues to be demanding however and depending on what you read either the recession is behind us or soon to be over. The truth is no one can tell you for sure the exact moment that we are out of this until we are well past it. The statistics that I cited above give me great hope that we are either out from under the black cloud or soon to be and when that happens, I will be supremely happy, not happier than our buyers and sellers, but supremely happy nonetheless.

Locally, both inventory and prices are starting to stabilize. Although lending is still tight, those with good credit can still get loans. Additionally those who are able to obtain financing are snapping up property at bargain prices which is a win / win. The buyers get almost instant equity and we as neighbors and home owners get a reduction in inventory supply, which helps prices stabilize, which is critical to returning to a normal market. Indeed a win / win.

So what does my crystal ball say? Quite frankly the volatility of the market over the last two years has shattered my crystal ball. The last two years have been the toughest of my career and I was licensed in 1995. The market did strange and weird things. Banks did even stranger things on short sales and foreclosures, the stock market did strange things as well.

Truly though, I believe there is real evidence of improving conditions in many respects. Employment is improving, retail spending is improving and auto sales are up (I personally participated in boosting the auto sales). Even the most pessimistic of forecasters noted that jobs and housing would need to turn before we should feel like we are back on track. I can tell you that we at Island Realty are doing our part to keep the housing component on track, no small task, but we are doing our part. Another win / win.

New Tool For Challenging Market

Beaufort, SC – March 4, 2010 — Theresa Cooper, Jennifer Helms & Cindy Byers with Island Realty of the Lowcountry have earned the nationally recognized Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource certification. The National Association of REALTORS^® offers the SFR certification to REALTORS^® who want to help both buyers and sellers navigate these complicated transactions, as demand for professional expertise with distressed sales grows.

According to a recent NAR survey, nearly one-third of all existing homes sold recently were either short sales or foreclosures. For many real estate professionals, short sales and foreclosures are the new “traditional” transaction. REALTORS^® who have earned the SFR certification know how to help sellers maneuver the complexities of short sales as well as help buyers pursue short sale and foreclosure opportunities.

“As leading advocates for homeownership, REALTORS^® believe that any family that loses its home to foreclosure is one family too many, but unfortunately, there are situations in which people just cannot afford to keep their homes, and a foreclosure or a short sale results,” said 2009 NAR President Charles McMillan, a broker with Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Dallas-Fort Worth. “Foreclosures and short sales can offer opportunities for home buyers and benefit the larger community, as well, but it’s extremely important to have the help of a real estate professional like a REALTOR^® who has earned the SFR certification for these kinds of purchases.”

The certification program includes training on how to qualify sellers for short sales, negotiate with lenders, protect buyers, and limit risk, and provides resources to help REALTORS^® stay current on national and state-specific information as the market for these distressed properties evolves. To earn the SFR certification, REALTORS^Ò are required to take one core course and three Webinars.

Do the Lenders Really Want to Get the Short Sales & Foreclosures Off Their Books

Yes, there are glimmers on the horizon of an improving economy and housing market. Yes, I have written countless times regarding what a good time it is to buy. Yes, I have even reprinted other people's missives on the subject, so you know I believe it is a good time to buy. And finally yes, prices are still attractive, interest rates are still good and the inventory of homes to buy is still larger than normal.

So what's my beef?

Short sales and foreclosures, that's my beef. Specifically how uncooperative the lenders in these positions are. As I write, our company has a listing that is in short sale status (the lender is willing to take less than is owed on the property) with multiple offers on it. As the Broker in Charge, I had to step in and take over the negotiations because the listing agent also brought one of the offers. So my first course of action is to submit all three offers to the lender. Done. Knowing full well that these things take longer than normal I waited a few days to contact the lender. When I contacted them to check the status and see how they were going to proceed --

a. choose one offer and reject the others,
b. negotiate all the offers or
c. reject all the offers

I was told that I should have selected the best one and rejected the others. To which I explained that this wasn't possible, that I had to present all offers and although technically they aren't the seller (yet) the transaction is subject to third party approval. The person on the other end sighed heavily and told me that my offers although they had been submitted five days earlier were waiting for document review from the underwriter, not document review of offers but of the home owner's file. In other words they wouldn't even look at any of them until they amassed reams of paper from the seller.

Five days after that, I have checked back twice and the only thing I can tell you is that the seller's file is complete and the offers have gone to the underwriter. They can't / won't tell me which offer has been chosen, they don't know who the underwriter will choose. They can't / won't let me talk to the underwriter. They tell me that a decision should be made in about 30 days. I tell them that the home is due to be foreclosed on prior to that. They say call a week before to get them to avert the foreclosure.

Next, I ask them to please take pity on me and my buyers. I try to explain that without even knowing if their offers have been selected or not that they will grow nervous and weary and that we stand the chance of losing any or all of the buyers and clearly that isn't good for either of us. I told them that most buyers won't wait 30 days to know if they are even going to be negotiated with, that they will start looking around at other stuff. The response, "well, if one or all of them walk just notify us".

I ask them to take pity on my seller. I explain the state of anxiety a seller must be in when they are on the brink of something as serious as short sale and if that doesn't work, foreclosure. I tell them I will do whatever I can to help expeditite the process. I am essentially told, "sorry about your luck, we will be done, when we are done".

I am STUNNED....... Every day for months and months the whole country has been reading about the economic and housing crisis. We have read about how no one is doing anything, that consumer confidence is at a historic low, that lenders are awash in foreclosures and short sales, that families are losing their homes, people are losing their jobs etc. The news has been dismal at best and here in our situation, we have ready willing and able buyers and we can't even get a response.

This I know for sure, it is paramount that we get the inventory reduced. Prices have no hope of returning to normal until there are fewer homes. That is a simple law of supply and demand. We have no hope of a serious reduction in inventory with such a lack of cooperation from the lenders. This particular lender's representatives were down right disdainful in speaking with me. If I am frustrated, I can't imagine how the buyers must feel.

Is there an answer? Yes, get the lenders to cooperate with ready, willing and able buyers. How do we do that? I'm not sure, it will take someone much smarter than me to figure that one out.

We're on YouTube

We're on YouTube. In today's world everyone wants to see things immediately and I get that, I'm that way too. With that said, our listings are appearing on YouTube. To take a look at what we've got, just click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F957FE6ACC0F2000

Posting videos is just one more thing that we do for our clients.

Real Estate on the Sea Islands in The New Year

Welcome to 2009. Where to start, where to start? In about 10 days we will have a new president. My hope is that the new administration can help pull the country out of the challenging real estate market, get the economy under control and most importantly get things in Iraq and Afghanistan under control as well. Somehow they all seem interconnected to me and helping one of those things will ultimately help the other two.

From my point of view, our year is off to a good start. While we are only 13 days into the New Year, Island Realty has already put 7 properties under contract for a total value of $2,765,900 all due to close within the next 45 days. Additionally Island Realty boasts 48 % of all the active listings on Fripp and 36% of all the active listings on Harbor. Further I/R claims 50% of the new contracts on Fripp and 100% of the new contracts on Harbor.

Dataw remains a challenge to us but we are committed to penetrating that market in '09. With a combination of newsletters, e-blasts, community participation and plain old fashioned hard work, by this time next year our Dataw statistics will be just as impressive as our Fripp and Harbor statistics. Stay tuned.

Unusual Weather

Good Afternoon:

As I write, the temperature on Harbor Island is 64 F. This is a bit unusual for the lowcountry at this time of year. The good news the temperature is supposed to be 77 F by Wednesday. So if you're local, it seems like a good time to get in a few last rounds of golf. If you aren't here, well I wish you were so you could share this delightful time with us.

Cindy

Track Tropical Storm Josephine, Track Hurricane Ike, Track Hurricane Hanna / Stormpulse / Hurricane tracking, mapping

Hello Friends, Tropical storms are a serious issue when you live in a coastal area, or own a home in a coastal area. With that in mind, I wanted to share with you a great storm tracking site.

Track Tropical Storm Josephine, Track Hurricane Ike, Track Hurricane Hanna / Stormpulse / Hurricane tracking, mapping